“I am a militiaman,” one captain, who leads a fleet, said. He allowed Asahi Shimbun reporters aboard his boat…
Masahiro Yumino, a former Foreign Ministry analyst specializing in Chinese militias, says China maintains a “national defense mobilization” system that broadly incorporates citizens and resources.
Yumino said local People’s Armed Forces Departments oversee the maritime militia.
The Chinese government reported 8 million militia personnel nationwide in 2011. They have been deployed for public security in urban and rural areas, as well as disaster relief.
Yumino estimates the maritime militia component alone holds 200,000 to 300,000 members.
Their missions include deployment to disputed areas while posing as ordinary fishing vessels, coordination with Chinese coast guard ships, and obstruction or intimidation of foreign vessels.
It is believed that maritime militia members are sometimes ordered to collide with other ships.
Jason Wang, chief operating officer of the U.S.-based geospatial intelligence firm ingeniSPACE, which identified the post-December 2025 “wall” activities, said the maritime militia conducts intelligence gathering and patrols, serving as the “eyes and ears” of the Chinese military.
The “walls” of thousands of fishing vessels could block commercial shipping and effectively close sea lanes, he said.
“Activities of the Chinese maritime militia target not just Taiwan but also commercial shipping to Japan and South Korea,” Wang said.
These forces are trained for maritime interdiction and armed conflict scenarios, and could disrupt routes used by oil, LNG tankers and container ships.
「私は民兵だ」 中国漁船がつくった「壁」を追跡、漁港で語った船長
Communist Party Oath on a PAF-MM Ship: “我志愿加入中国共产党，调护觉的纲领，遵守党的章理，履行美员火分。执行党的决定，严守党的经售，影9金 的秘密，对觉出说，现败工作为去产主火奋斗終身，随财准過方党和人民間性一切，永不频算，
What Actually Caused the Latest Submarine Cut Near Taiwan?
“China prefers ‘invisible hybrid warfare’ (隐形混合战) over kinetic warfare. Covert irregular warfare enables China the means to quietly overwhelm its targets not only physically but economically and politically as well – all without firing a shot. The use of civilian fishing vessels not only provide plausible deniability but legitimizes China’s claims and salami-slicing tactics as lawful and just.”
China Maritime Report #52: Everything Everywhere All At Once — The Growing Complexity of PLA Amphibious Exercises
Main Findings
In August 2025, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) conducted a large-scale exercise to simulate an invasion of Taiwan. This “capstone” amphibious exercise suggests that People’s Liberation Army (PLA) training and preparations for a future Taiwan campaign are becoming more focused, realistic, and sophisticated.
The exercise consolidated elements from previous years into a single simulated operation. It integrated a floating causeway system, anti-landing barriers and obstacles, and amphibious Landing Craft Tank (LCT) vessels that landed forces directly onto beachheads.
For the first time observed, the PLA conducted a phased exercise with simultaneous amphibious landings in three distinct locations. Exercise areas incorporated civilian aquaculture obstacles like those expected to be found along Taiwan’s coastline, increasing environmental and tactical realism.
The exercise occurred at simulated “landing locations” opposite Taiwan, particularly within the Zhangzhou-Xiamen-Quanzhou littoral zone. The locations were distributed at distance intervals comparable to likely wartime beachheads along Taiwan’s western coastline. The total distance between discrete exercise locations was approximately 360 kilometers, roughly the distance between Taipei and Kaohsiung.
Not merely hypothetical in nature, the exercise reflected a specific geographical and operational focus. It appears to be part of a larger trend whereby the PLA is mapping its exercises onto analogous geography that reflects envisioned targets.
Future research should explore the potential applications and implications of PLA efforts to train with similar distances and geometries as would be found in prospective conflict zones.
Starting this summer, observers should scrutinize future capstone amphibious exercises to better understand the PLA’s strengths, weaknesses, and underlying operational assumptions.
May 19th - Select Committee on the CCP
For over a decade, the Chinese Communist Party has deployed “fishing fleets” and coast guard vessels as tools of coercion, blurring the line between civilian and military activity to expand its control across the Indo-Pacific. In the East China Sea, more than 600 Chinese vessels formed coordinated lines for hours at a time. In the Yellow Sea, China installed large aquaculture cages and a network of surveillance buoys in contested waters with South Korea. And in the South China Sea, China has surged coast guard patrols around Scarborough Shoal while constructing new artificial outposts at reefs near Vietnam complete with jetties, helipads, and potential runways. This is not routine commerce, it's gray zone warfare designed to intimidate U.S. allies, restrict access to international waters, and normalize China’s unlawful territorial claims. The U.S. and its partners must respond with urgency, strengthening maritime domain awareness, supporting frontline allies, and defending freedom of navigation.
中国軍演習、民間船使い高度化
Chinese use of civilian vessels grow more sophisticated in amphibious warfare exercises.
See How China Is Gaining Power in Contested Waters - Chinese fishing vessels pushed within 150 miles of a U.S. naval base in Japan last month, the latest maneuver in a decades long campaign
About 200 Chinese fishing boats—part of China’s state-directed maritime fleet—recently pushed further east in the Yellow Sea. Some came within 150 miles of the Japanese city of Sasebo, home to a core U.S. naval base, according to ship-tracking data provided by geospatial analysis firm ingeniSPACE and verified by The Wall Street Journal.
Maritime Executive: China's Naval Drills Show Growing Focus on Capturing Taiwan
China's military has been conducting exercises near the self-governing island of Taiwan for years, simulating naval blockades, air incursions and landings. But a round of drills conducted last fall appeared to be a much more "focused, realistic and sophisticated" simulation of an amphibious assault on the island, down to the distances between exercise locations and the conditions found near shore, according to a new analysis by satellite intelligence firm ingeniSpace and the U.S. Naval War College. The report arrives amidst news of concern within the Pentagon about the status of U.S. interceptor and long-range strike missile stocks, which would be needed to mount a defense of Taiwan.
China Just Tested Its Invisible Navy… And No One Noticed
Like Christmas Day, we woke to find a surprise - our work was being covered by a Youtuber.
中国漁船1200隻、東シナ海で反転「L字型」隊列 3月1～3日、米国排除へ準備行動か
On March 1-3, Chinese Maritime Militia continued a new exercise in the East Sea, replicating recent mass mobilizations possibly time to send a message to the US and Japan
Thousands Of Chinese Boats Mass At Sea, Raising Questions
"We've seen like two, 300, up to a thousand (Chinese fishing boats congregate), but anything exceeding a thousand I thought was unusual."
Maritime and military experts told AFP the massing of Chinese fishing boats on December 25, about 300 kilometres northeast of Taiwan, was on a scale they had never seen before.
Another incident detected in early January involved around 1,000 Chinese fishing vessels clustered in an uneven rectangle, about 400 kilometres long, for more than a day in the same area of the East China Sea.
China appears set on militarizing another reef in the South China Sea
The geospatial firm ingeniSPACE first noticed the phenomenon, as 2,000 Chinese vessels created this formation from Dec. 25-27 in waters northeast of Taiwan.
This coordinated activity occurred just three days before China announced a major exercise circumscribing Taiwan. Dubbed Justice Mission-2025, the PLA exercise was designed to browbeat Taiwan and rehearse the implementation of a naval blockade.
Something similar took place from Jan. 9-12, when some 1,400 Chinese fishing boats formed a 200-mile-long “barrier” for more than 30 hours, according to automatic identification system data.